About Nature
It wasn’t so long ago, that all of us knew how to read the signs of nature all around us and were able to react accordingly. That could be finding food growing so abundantly in any wild space, or knowing that a big storm is coming and it is time to find shelter.
Our lives were dictated and revolved around the natural rhythms of day and night and the seasons.
Now, we have light and entertainment at any time of the day or night and certainly have forgotten how to read the signs nature leaves for us everywhere. Or we willfully ignore them because we think we can be the master of all forces.
That leads us to build houses in flood areas and to eat food which has nothing in common with anything growing in the ground or falling off a tree.
Kids grow up thinking that milk comes from a box, eggs from a carton and veggies from a bag in the freezer.
All this leads to us treating mother earth very badly and it is high time to reverse that trend and restore what still can be restored. By now we all know - or should know - that we have destroyed countless square miles of rainforest and lost species of plants and animals we now never will know that they once existed.
The good news is that every one of us can make a huge difference in the world - for good or for bad.
Take Jadav Payeng. He is an Indian man who single-handedly planted a forest. A 1360 square acre forest!!! This is the power of one. Read more about him in this wikipedia posting and I highly encourage you to search for articles about him on the internet.
Here are some of the things I am doing for my part of taking care of nature. In my daily life, I am doing my best to be aware of how my actions are impacting our earth. I hang my laundry, avoid packaging whenever I can and recycle everything possible.
My trips in the car are planned that I do all the errands at once instead of driving to the store over and over and over again.
I buy clothes and food which was produced in an environmentally friendly way and raised my children in that consciousness.
Teaching your children, your parents, your neighbors and everyone one can reach, makes a huge impact. And the best way of teaching is being an example as much as we can.
The biggest impact I personally have in the pursued of my goal of protecting mother earth is my podcast called the Sustainable Living Podcast. We reach thousands of people with each episode and have wonderful guests who are sharing so many ways we, as individuals, can make a difference. And how powerful we all can be when we come together as a community.
One of my favorite guests - actually, almost all of them are my favorites- is Dr. Adrian Cooper who is helping people to create nature reserves in their neighborhoods. Each neighbor plants one or two plants for the wildlife. Before you know it, you have a football field equivalent of plants dedicated to pollinators, birds and other wild creatures.
If you are interested, here is the episode
Community gardens and classes to teach growing your own food is another good way to reach out and make a difference.
Two friends and I have taken over a community project and are working on creating a teaching garden and working on a public food forest. We are the Bancroft Center for Sustainability and have so far initiated backyard food swaps, a regular Fixit clinic in partnership with a local nonprofit. People learn how to and/or get their broken items repaired. And many garden and environment-related classes.
Here are volunteers helping to create a new garden bed out of straw waddles.
I truly believe that we all can do something to keep our planet green and beautiful and small actions of many will make a huge difference!
Enjoy the video of one of our food swaps.
All images are my own unless otherwise cited.
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